The Parting Glass
by Don'tEvenHaveAGun
Summary: Alice was an enigma that walked the wilds of Wonderland; she pushed through barriers that no outsider could ever accomplish without losing their insanity first. She would stand outside her virtue and tempt life to take her. She could have wandered anywhere in Wonderland, could have had anyone fall for her in these foreign lands. So why did they catch her fancy?


**The Parting Glass**

**Prologue: **

**Same Coin. Different Side.**

_**Black Joker**_

She'd consider her role – questionable. Even more questionable as a woman with few moral boundaries. But the way that dear Alice smiled seemed to put that shame into the darkest depths of her mind and how, as typical, a woman would list the romanticized version of her life and pretend to ignore the realism. She wasn't that little girl that listed romantic stories to make her life feel meaningful again, no, she was a realist that set her goals against a man's world. And how this world burned under her feet when she'd fight back instead of giving into the simplicities of it all; giving in would never be an option – even if her heartbeat was the only thing to be heard underneath the floor of her chest.

Alice sometimes wished that she had a set of four hands, two to cover her eyes and two to shield her ears when the sickening crack of gore spilled to the concrete floor of prison dreams. She heard bone snapping and the pressure of a boot that clicked against metal bars.

"Get the fuck back!" Black shouted and his voice carried weight against the fog-smitten prison; his voice echoed against empty floors and thick concrete walls which caused the prisoners from every level to quit their moment of groaning out of fear.

Alice simply pulled her dress free from the hand that draped over the cold steel of prison bars. It wasn't uncommon when Alice took her curious mind through prison halls that she'd be grabbed at by one of the prisoners, but today she was careless and paced too close to the cell blocks. This would cause Black to react, and without much of a warning, ended the contact this faceless was promised.

Before life drained from this prisoner's hands, he'd whisper, "I only want to listen to your heart." But his voice was muffled by the stuffing from his animal mask that he was forced to wear. This inquisitive confession was directed towards Alice, but Black would have none of that; she was his' guest after all, and all her attention would be casted towards him even during when he worked these ample, light-flickering, hallways.

"You're a troubling brat. You know this?" Black sneered, but he still offered his arm for her to take. Alice would hesitate, but this Joker insisted as they paced down never ending hallways filled to the brim with prisoners that would either laugh manically or sobbed uncontrollably – what a cruel fate that these beings were webbed into. Alice finally looped her arm into the Warden's arm and they continued their daily stroll through the confines of Hell. Black's shoes could be heard plainly, the rhythm of his boots clicking against solid surface, and the way that his shoelaces tapped against his boots intensified the throbbing sound.

"Troubling? Troubling is something to be considered when a man drags you into his line of work. Troubling is something to be taken into consideration when that said man likes to walk closer to the cells then down the middle." Alice notes drolly, her ocean-compelled eyes revolving to stare at him in his higher level, blood-stained single hue.

This left the silver-tongue Joker to snicker at Alice's bluntness to the situation of being manhandled. "My – how bold you've become, Alice. And here I was hoping to gander a scream from you today. Troubling times, indeed." Black's voice rolls taunting, charming if you canceled out the persona he carried on his shoulders. Even with distain, Joker's smile never withered but inclined when Alice's witty comebacks took root, or the way that her meek voice intended more harm than it was actually worth.

"And here you go about with this problem of _something troubling. _I hate it when you speak of analogies. You begin to ramble when you do." Alice wasn't affected in this circumstance, but in fact scolded the notorious Warden that lurked in demon-eyed dreams.

"Me? Now would I riddle you with problems, dear Alice? I do so enjoy your foolish notions on how I am the root of your frustrations. Perhaps you need to denounce that silly idea and take in consideration that it is not I, but the entire land you foolish harp." Black chided, but kept his wicked grin when he stared down at the young madam that accompanied him down the long stretch of prison hall, her arm still looped loosely with his; the prisoners' hands still gripping at void, and grasping for air when Alice passed the stacked cells. They all beckoned for her calling-card heart.

"And still I wander." Alice mumbled, and a sly grin spread like the plague against Black's handsome features.

"You may be lost, foolish girl, but you will be found. Not within here. Not ever." Their walking seemed aimless, and she'd wonder if Joker pulled such an illusion to expand their time together. Alice shook her head at that thought and mused into a troubled sigh before pulling off her own small smile.

They walked for several hours till Black called his quits upon his silly games.

_**White Joker**_

"Counting constellations again, dear Alice?" White smiled brightly at her hunched over form that stared in never-ending space, her Atlantic vex plastered against the heavens and how the stars mirrored off the glassy surface of her hues. White would pat her head softly to gain her attention; this averted her haze from the stars to the man that wished to join her.

"I wouldn't say I'm counting. Mostly observing." Alice moved over to silently agree to let Joker sit down by her side. "It's something to do when you are performing and Black is – working." Alice heeded a simple shrug then turned back to stare at the abyss of heavenly bodies; a star or two would be brighter than the duller ones, but they were equally as fascinating as the others.

White took his rightful spot next to her, keeping his welcoming smile etched upon the grain of his face. "You make it out to sound that we do not pay attention to you, dear Alice. On the contrary, dear girl, we would very much enjoy the advantage of having you near. And counting stars sounds like a lonely hobby. Wouldn't you say, Alice?" He nudged her playfully with the side of his shoulder and Alice perked up with a ghosted laugh that was hidden by a drawn hand. Politely, she folded both her hands back upon her lap.

"Nothing lonely about observing stars by yourself, Joker. It can be a hobby all on its own. And – no thank you. I rather not dabble in whatever you – and the other Joker does." Alice turned her head to face White fully, painting her smile beautifully in White's plain kindness. But her smile was short-lived, and bittersweet when she heard White's counterpart echo against the plain glass of the mask that was strapped to White's hip.

"I wouldn't want her working down here with me anyways. She'd probably bitch even more when one of the inmates decides to get touchy again." Black always had something laced suggestive under his dark tones, and White could only shake his head in disapproval.

"Now, don't be rude, Joker." White's voice came off singsong and it left Alice to map out her small smile again. White raveled in that feeling of her innocence that brimmed, cataloging any rise that he approached her with. And while the other role holders despised the terrors the Jokers' wove, Alice still would continue to seek out the company of these strange men.

"Anything you say will not change what he says, Joker. It is almost to be expected." Joker felt the warmth of her sliding hand, and how thin digits webbed over the topside of his hand. Alice gave him an earnest squeeze of reassurance. White would smile hard and with his free hand he overlapped hers.

"Even so –"White nodded off and hummed understanding.

"-Even so," Alice went on," I don't expect the Warden to truly live up to those words. You must know – you are his other, practically the same. I'd know if he despised me, for something would reflect off of your personality, Joker. And –"Alice's grin grew mischievous, "He can be rather, strangely, sweet when I am alone with him."

The glass mask from White's hip groaned in disapproving promise, and it only led up to Alice and White brimming with assorted laugher over the infamous Warden's uncomfortable nature.

Alice always took it to heart – that Black was still cynical. And so was White if she squinted her eyes long enough. Perhaps she was playing a game of Russian roulette with the way she associated with the bickering Jokers, and perhaps she didn't care anymore that her mind cut her off like a mirror maze and she spiraled into madness.

_**The Same Coin**_

"_So fill to me the parting glass. And drink a health whate'er befalls." _Upon the trio, both Jokers rested into the sincerity of Alice's song that whispered in the thick of darkness. White had rested his head upon Alice's thigh, and Black rested his on the adjacent end of her lap. While mindlessly, Alice's fingers fiddled with the strands of crimson locks of both men that fell upon her virgin-kissed skin. _"And gently rise and softly call, good night and joy be to you all." _

The men would close their tired, bewildering eyes. And both of the men would fall into the trend of delicate, questioning fingers that soothed out the terrors that still bled through the very core of their manic minds. White played off his smile, while Black took a more direct approach upon a subtle thin-lipped curve. Nonetheless, these strangers of sanity called upon protocol of spending time with their dear Alice that sung her haunting, foreigner song.

She'd gifted them with her meek tune, her fabled tongue. Alice would smile about the guard that they pulled down when she started her song, and the feeling was intoxicating enough to be wanted by them. _"Of all the comrades that e'er I had, they're sorry for my going away. And all the sweethearts that e'er I had, they'd wish me one more day to stay." _

Alice's image flickered against the lit candle that sat proudly among the age ridden coffee table, her heartbeat counting out and contributing to her voice that rapped softly against the lining of the front of her dress. Her fixation only brought to the two men that pleaded for her in their own ways. Her fingers began their slow mapped out trail against their defined faces. _"But since it fell unto my lot. That I should rise and you should not. I gently rise and softly call, Good night and joy by to you all." _

"_Good night and joy be to you all." _Her voice finally died, and all was silent against the edges of her tent that sat proudly among the outskirts of The Circus.

**A/N: **Slightly AU, but what the hell. I couldn't help but write several dabbles about Alice and the Jokers – which seems like an awkward love. I don't believe in the shared love stuff, but – well, oh well. Each their own, you know?Even if these are dabbles they will all be related, so on and so forth. Thank you for taking the time to read my work – whoever you people are.

**A little history for ya': "**_The Parting Glass – is a Scottish and Irish traditional song, often sun at the end of a gathering of friends. It was allegedly the most popular parting song sun in Scotland before Rober Burns wrote "Auld Lang Syne" The poem was printed as a broadside in the 1770s and first appeared in book form in "Scots Songs" by herd. The text is doubtless older that its 1770 appearance in broadside, etc." – Wikipedia. _

**Want to listen to it?: **Well, in my opinion I liked The Walking Dead version with Maggie and Beth. But there are many artist that sung this brilliant poem and I recommend it!


End file.
